First Thursday: 'Holding What Can't Be Held' at Ming Studios

Idaho artists explore nuclear activity in the state

In the fall of 2014, seven artists from Boise, McCall, Pocatello and Idaho Falls took a tour of the Idaho National Laboratory with the Snake River Alliance—a nonprofit that focuses on curbing nuclear activity in Idaho.

The artists spent time touring the places where INL stores and dumps spent nuclear fuel rods, then they came back and spent the past several months creating artwork based on their experiences. One of the artists recently lost her mother to cancer and skin disease, after a long career at the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado.

"Most of the waste from Rocky Flats has been brought to the Idaho National Laboratory," SRA Executive Director Kelsey Nunez told Boise Weekly. "This artist was seeing the radioactive materials that killed her mother."

The exhibit, Holding What Can't Be Held, opens First Thursday at 6 p.m. at MING Studios (420 S. Sixth St.); Bijoux and the Experimental Breeders will play music throughout the evening. The exhibit also features an open discussion on the artwork on Friday, July 10, and a film screening on Friday, July 17 and Saturday, July 18.

Nunez said the goal of this project is to bring more attention to nuclear issues in the state.